Older Adults, Health Information, and the World Wide Web

02/15/99

Registration Materials are now available.
Older Adults, Health Information, and the World Wide Web
A national conference hosted by
The SPRY Foundation, Washington, D. C.
and The University of Georgia Gerontology Center
March 25 - 26, 1999
The Natcher Center
on the campus of The National Institutes of Health
Bethesda, Maryland

In just 10 years, one-third of the U.S. population will be age 50 or older.
This "maturing market" is the fastest growing market segment and the fastest
growing group of Internet users today.

We invite you to join nearly 250 leading academic, private, and government
experts for a conference, "Older Adults, Health Information, and the World Wide
Web" to gain a better understanding of the maturing market which will control an
estimated 900 billion dollars in discretionary income. The conference is hosted
by The SPRY Foundation, Washington, D. C. and The University of Georgia
Gerontology Center. It will take place on the National Institutes of Health
campus in Bethesda, Maryland, March 25 - 26, 1999.

Experts from the National Institutes of Health - National Library of Medicine,
National Institute on Aging, The Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, The
Health Care Financing Administration, the Administration on Aging, the Centers
for Disease Control and other government agencies, as well as universities, and
private and corporate organizations such as AT&T, IBM, Pasteur Merieux Connaught
- Rhone-Poulenc Group, Microsoft, America Online, Inc., Intel and others from
around the country will meet to share effective strategies using the World Wide
Web to reach older adults with important health care information.

The conference will be of particular interest to basic and applied researchers
in cognition and aging, clinicians, senior marketing management for products and
services for the elderly, communications managers, and website designers.

Conference Objectives:

1. Identify the "state of the art" work being conducted to increase
the use of computers and the World Wide Web by older adults. Both (a) basic
applied cognitive aging research in this area and (b) hands-on application
through innovative demonstration projects focused primarily on the delivery of
health care information and health care provision will be included in the
discussion.

2. Isolate the current problems in health information delivery to
older adults and their caregivers and construct models via the World Wide Web to
alleviate these problems.

3. Identify key impediments which older adults currently face
regarding use of the World Wide Web to access health information. Determine
solutions to these impediments through a cross-fertilization of ideas between
basic researchers in aging and computer use and health information providers.

4. Define specific areas of future research on older adults' use of
the
World Wide Web that will support functional independence.

5. Identify key individuals and institutions involved in developing
these areas of work, thus encouraging communication on this topic among basic
researchers and health information providers nationally and internationally.

Electronic Poster Boards

Two rooms in The Natcher Center will be set aside to accommodate up to 24
tabletop personal computers (PCs) that will be hooked up to the Internet via a
T3 local area network (LAN) connection. We invite attendees to display current
health information websites, particularly those that have been designed
specifically with older adults as the target audience, in addition to other
business or institutional Websites. There is a charge of $275 to display an
electronic poster. This charge does not include registration for the
conference.

Conference Organizing Committee

The conference organizing committee is co-chaired by Russell E. Morgan, Jr.,
Dr.P.H., President of the SPRY Foundation, Washington, D. C. and Roger W.
Morrell, Ph.D., Assistant Director of the Gerontology Center at the University
of Georgia, Athens, Georgia.

Evening Networking Dinner

A reception and dinner for all conference attendees is planned for the evening
of March 25th at the Natcher Center. One ticket is included with the Conference
Registration fee.

For more information about registration for the Conference or registration to
display an electronic poster, please contact: